Note 8 - Discontinued Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations, Disclosure [Text Block]

(8)           DISCONTINUED OPERATIONS

As a result of the sales of our Gulf Coast oil and gas properties and the abandonment of our coalbed methane projects during 2011, all related Gulf Coast and coalbed methane and oil and gas assets and liabilities and revenues and expenses are included as discontinued operations on the consolidated balance sheets and consolidated statements of operations, respectively, for all periods presented.

The carrying amounts of the major classes of assets and liabilities for our discontinued oil and gas operations are summarized below (in thousands):

	Years Ended December 31,
	2012		2011
Current Assets:
Accounts receivable, net	$	-	$	594
Total Current Assets		-		594
Other assets		-		2
Total Assets of Discontinued Operations	$	-	$	596
Current Liabilities:
Trade payables	$	3	$	19
Revenues and royalties payable		17		323
Accrued liabilities and other		227		1,050
Total Current Liabilities		247		1,392
Total Liabilities of Discontinued Operations	$	247	$	1,392

Our Accrued Liabilities and Other at December 31, 2012 include $142 thousand in legal fees related to the XPLOR Energy litigation (see Note 15 – “Commitments and Contingencies”) and $83 thousand for the completion of plugging and abandonment projects for wells in a field which stopped producing in March 2006, and were not transferred with the sales of our oil and gas fields in 2011.

Cash used by discontinued operations during the year ended December 31, 2012 is mainly related to the settlement of the current liabilities that existed at December 31, 2011, such as the plugging and abandonment costs related to projects initiated prior to the sale.  In addition, we continue to incur legal costs resulting from the sale of the oil and gas properties.  Upon settlement of the XPLOR Energy litigation and completion of the plugging and abandonment, no additional cash flows are expected to be generated by these discontinued operations.

The revenues and net income before income tax associated with our discontinued oil and gas operations are as follows (in thousands):

	Years Ended December 31,
	2012			2011
Revenues and other:
Oil and gas operations	$	-		$	10,178
Oil and gas processing and handling income		-			1,231
Total revenues from discontinued operations	$	-		$	11,409
Income (loss) from discontinued operations before taxes	$	(467	)	$	1,878

We recognized an additional loss on the 2011 disposal of our Gulf Coast oil and gas properties of $157 thousand during the year ended December 31, 2012, as a result of increases in actual retained plugging and abandonment costs over estimates at December 31, 2011.